Nancy
Top of page 3 in the manual it states to turn the handwheel away from yourself, hopefully you are doing that? It's the first machine I've ever had to do that too. You probably know that already. I'm slowly getting through this forum, what fun it is to learn and see the great machines out there. I need to find needles and bobbins for my New Home as the previous owner must have tried wrong length needles and roughened up the bobbins and the bobbin case. It stitches pretty good considering the rough bobbins. Enjoy your machine.
Suzy